Thursday, June 21, 2012

Fear of falling

Big is NOT better, always

Recently, I was commissioned to do a cover
story on one of India’s most renowned historian. Since I am not a student of
history, before I met her, I did a considerable amount of reading of her works.
The fascinating journey to the history of ancient India lead me to realise that
when we look at our past, there is a lot of information that needs to be
corrected, since we read Indian history written by the British.

For instance, for years I held on to the idea
that Asoka, the Maurya king was complete transformation from within after the
battle of Kalinga, which he won but the bloodbath changed him and he took to Buddhism.
He was instrumental in spreading Buddhism throughout his kingdom, which was as
vast as to almost cover the entire subcontinent. In fact, I remember clearly,
when I visited Sanchi in 2009, I was overwhelmed with feelings when I walked
through the vast remains of what is today a World Heritage Site (see https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/118112130944380341626/albums/5414704166884978305 )

In the background of such emotional connection, my readings lead me to debunk
my previous thoughts and relook at Asoka with a fresh critical eye.

To begin with, his conversion to Buddhism was not all of a sudden after all. During
the period he was Viceroy of Ujjain, he had met and fallen in love with one Devi,
the daughter of a merchant, in Vidisha, who was in fact an ardent follower of
Buddhism. Through her he had had two children, a daughter and a son. However,
he did not marry her and when he moved to Patilaputra (the capitol of the
Maurya dynasty, which is close to present day, Patna, in Bihar) he married
thrice, and his second wife Padmawati gave birth to two other children, again a
boy and a girl. On his death in 233 – 232 B.C, the Maurya kingdom which lasted
for 137 years, starting from his grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya onwards ended
in 181-180 B.C. The Maurya kingdom had been already divided into the west and
east zones, which were ruled by two separate monarchs – in the west, with its
new capitol as Taxila, his son from
Padmavati, Kunala, and in the eastern zone, continuing to hold Pataliputra as
its capitol, by his grandson Dasaratha .

During the reign of Asoka, the Maurya Empire was under the influence of
Buddhism, as he propagated dhamma although many other sects including Brahmins
lived alongside. Asoka preached tolerance of all religions and directed his
people to live in peaceful coexistence.

However, towards the end of his life, he almost became a bigot, and some of his
edits literally force people to follow Buddhism, only.

As a religion, in as vast an empire as his, it might have been a good binding
force or a strategy that could hold his people together by virtue of a common
religion, but as a forced diet it was not palatable to all. This helped the
rise of the Shaivites in the eastern zone under Dasarath, while the Greeks took
over the western zone

India has always been open to people from other parts of the world, especially
the Greeks and the people following Islam, for by virtue of its geographical location
with the ocean on all three sides, it was always approachable by sea farers and
much trade and interchange of commerce were happening for a long time. This
meant that the people coming from outside, were intermingling and taking back
with them, the wealth in terms of philosophy, legends and tales, art and
architecture from us and leaving back with us, the same from their countries.
While there are records of disturbances between sects in India, unless there
was an invasion, which is only much later, there was a sense of peace
maintained, between at least the people who came to trade with us.

The inappropriate notion that invaders came and ransacked our temples, looted
and ran away with treasures, are a mixed bag of facts and fallacy. For example
take the case of Somanath in Gujarat. As cited above, available evidence proves
the opposite of what we are made to believe. And when we read about the fact
that the same temple also had a mosque in the same premises at one time, the
land given by the king to the frequent traders who came to trade in Somanath,
we really have o re-look at what we have read so far.

We are told that in 1026, Muhamud of Ghazni came and raised the temple Somanath
to the ground, plundered its wealth and breaking the idol there. Up until
today, sections of the Indian community hold this incident to be the benchmark
for continued violence against Muslims.

It is important to remember that the word Hindu
was first mentioned in Arabic texts to mean people who live on the other side
of the Sindu river. It had no religious connotation attached to it. It is we
who are a nation divided by caste/sect where Brahmins are touted to be the
highest, a self-given position, which has defied all rationality. The rigidity
of the community and its practices has caused the birth and spread of more
tolerant religions like Jainism and Buddhism. Indian history has proved that it
is not Hindus, but the sect called Brahmins, who have over and over pushed
their way around, and forced themselves over all other religions wiping out
their history, burning their texts and forcing them to leave the country, as
they did in the case of Buddhists.

If one looks carefully, one is bound to see,
there is a method in this madness. It is always, burn, kill, massacre,
obliterate. A body of thought that
cannot tolerate or is not open to another point of view, is a dogmatic one, no
matter by what name you call it. So pointing fingers at others and blaming them
for the violence in our country, is like blaming your neighbour for breaking
your house when you yourself have been doing it yourself.

The truth is, we are presently, positioned for another major turn in our
country, which mixes politics with religion and many of us fear that the
democracy we so happily tout as the world’s largest democracy, may soon be lost
to fascists if we are not careful.

What if the people running the country make bigger blunders than Godra in the
name of wiping out the Muslims? What if, we lose our nation to foreign
countries again, who propagate Christianity? What if our personal beliefs are threatened
and we have to wear our kastis tied
around our arms and not our waists, in order to hide it under the shirt, as
they did when Parsis were faced with having to protect their holy thread in
Hyderabad, to hide their religion, against the forces of a state that was
majorly dominated by Muslims? We have seen at the beginning of this article
that even a tolerant practice, such as Buddhism, will not do, if it becomes a
fanatical point of view.

The great dilemma we are in at this moment is, can we ever be a nation governed
by religion? Can we even tolerate a position of “religion is the opium of the
people”? We in fact, must now realise, that we are standing at the threshold of
an enormous challenge, that being, to find the way out of this impending mess of
caste based, voter Bank politics in the name of democracy.

It calls for a complete makeover of a society
which has been placing too much attention to the saffron tikka on the forehead and
making much ado about a set of “personal rituals”. Such practices can never
become a Rule applicable to all. And if we think it can, then we must admit we
have become megalomaniacs.

Even the gentlest of rulers as Asoka, would
in such a case make way for a nation to fall apart, once again. The dreaded
fear of falling is looming over us.

Note: The views expressed here are
entirely my ownPhoto credit: Unknown but possibly from the net.